Field Recording Usability Study

Tutorial

setup | recording | post-production | example

Welcome to the Field Recording Usability Study tutorial. This tutorial will guide you through the process of creating useful video of subject interaction for data collection purposes. Below you will find steps for initial setup, recording the usability test, and post-production

Setting Up the Equipment

Equipment List:

nNovia DV to Disk Recorder
Mini DV Camcorder (used: Canon 3ccd Digital Video Camcorder GL2 NTSC)
mini DV camcorder tape
Camcorder Tripod
Boundary Microphone (used: audio-technica boundary microphone)
Computer with s-video output capability (used: Apple Powerbook G4)
nNovia DV to Disk Recorder Analog I/O wiring harness
s-video cable
firewire cable
xlr to 1/8" stereo or mono jack

Setup

(click on the image to see a larger view)

1.	Connect the Analog I/O wiring harness to the nNovia if it is not already connected, the blue cables are inputs and the black cables are outputs.
2.	Connect the s-video cable to the s-video input on the Analog I/O wiring harness (blue wires on the wiring harness are inputs).
3.	Connect the other end of the s-video cable to the computer's s-video out connection. Note: To get the computer used in this tutorial (Mac G4 Powerbook) to send an s-video signal out, you first connect the s-video cable to the computer and then press apple+f2 (simultaneously), this should work with most Macintosh computers with s-video out capabilities. For PCs, right-click on the desktop and select Properties, this will bring up the Display Properties for the computer. Click the Settings tab, and then click the Advanced button to open the Advanced Display options which should contain an option to enable s-video out. Different computers will have different methods of doing this. For help with your computer refer to your operating system help guide and search for displays.
4.	Connect the mini xlr connection of the boundary microphone to the boundary microphone power supply.
5.	Connect the xlr cable to the boundary microphones power supply.
6.	Connect the other end of the xlr cable, 1/8" jack connector, to the microphone input on the camcorder.
7.	Place the camcorder on the tripod and position it in such a way that you can record the subjects facial expressions and their hands interacting with the computer.
8.	Place the boundary microphone in close proximity of where the subject will be sitting.

Recording the Usability Test

1.	Have the subject sit at the computer. There are a few ways to arrange the equipment and the choice will be yours to which will work best for your data collection requirements. Listed below are three typical arrangements and the purpose of using each: Setup 1: Position the camcorder & tripod in front of the subject to get a straight on shot of the subject's face; used when you need to capture their facial expressions. Setup 2: Position the camcorder & tripod on the left or right hand side of the subject; used when you want to be able to see facial expression and the subject interact with the computer. Setup 3: Position the camcorder & tripod behind the subject (shooting over their shoulder); used when you want to capture only their interaction with the computer and/or hide their identity.	Setup 1
		Setup 2
		Setup 3
2.	Make sure the nNovia is set to VTR mode. The nNovia has three different modes: VTR, Off, and HDD. The mode and its function is listed below: VTR - set to this mode when you want to do a dynamic screen capture via s-video Off - this mode turns the nNovia off HDD - this mode turns the nNovia into an external hard drive, use this mode when you want to copy the recording onto a computer NOTE: When switching between VTR and HDD, you must pause for at least a second on the Off mode. Also, when the nNovia is set to HDD, none of the buttons on the front are functional.
3.	Select a bin on the nNovia where you will record the dynamic screen capture. A bin is like a locker, the nNovia has 99 bins to choose from and you want to choose one that is empty. The main display for the nNovia (the first thing it shows when switched to VTR mode) is the current bin and "previous" for the left soft button and "next" for the right soft button. Use the soft buttons to navigate to an empty bin on the nNovia. Remember which bin you are recording to.
4.	Begin recording with the nNovia. The record button is used in conjunction with the play button to begin recording. First, you must press and hold the record button and then press the play button to begin recording. Note: If you do not see the timer begin to count on the nNovia's display, the nNovia does not detect a connection and is not recording anything. To troubleshoot this scenario, first check the s-video cable connections. If these connections appear to be correct, make sure your computer is sending an s-video signal out.
5.	Begin recording with the camcorder on the tripod (make sure the boundary microphone is powered on, you can check if the camcorder is receiving an audio feed from the boundary microphone by plugging headphones into the camcorder's headphone jack).
6.	Because two separate video recordings will be captured (dynamic screen capture and camcorder) the two videos will need to be synced together in post-production. To effectively do this, the subject will need to provide both a visual and audio cue. The visual cue will be performed on the computer, which will be recorded by the nNovia and the audio cue will come from the subject speaking a few words, which will be captured by the camcorder because the boundary microphone is connected to it. Remember, the idea is to create cues to sync the videos from the camcorder and the nNovia, so the audio and visual cues will need to happen simultaneously. One suggestion is to have the subject maximize the software application they will be interacting with while simultaneously saying maximize. Once you feel this has been executed effectively you may proceed with the usability test.
7.	Allow the user to complete the assigned task on the computer.
8.	Stop recording with the camcorder.
9.	Stop recording with the nNovia by pressing the stop button.
10.	Upon stopping the recording on the nNovia, the video that has been captured needs to be "made". This means that the data (video) that has been written to the nNovia's hard drive has not been finalized and can still be added to. The video needs to be "made" which will finalize the video clip and encode it with a codec. The nNovia can "make" .avi and .mov video files, the choice of which to use is up to you and can be set in the Menu options. To "make" the video, make sure you are in the right bin and use the menu toggle button to navigate to the display screen that says "Make Videos?" Use the right soft button to select "Enter". Allow the nNovia to "make" the video.

Post-Production

1.	First, the videos needs to be imported onto the computer that will be used for the post-production work. Remember, there are two videos that need to be imported: the dynamic screen capture that was recorded on the nNovia (if you have not "made" the video on the nNovia, refer back to step 10 of Recording the Usability Study) the video that was recorded with the camcorder; this video contains the audio that was recorded by the boundary microphone *continue to step 2
2.	Use a firewire cable that has a 6-pin connector on one end and 6-pin connector on the other. Connect one end to the firewire port on the nNovia and the other end to a firewire port on the computer that will be use for post-production work. Once the firewire connection and the power supply have been connected, switch the nNovia to HDD mode (remember to pause for at least 1 second in the off position).
3.	The computer should recognize the nNovia as an external hard drive. Once you see the nNovia, navigate to the bin in which you recorded your video file to. When you find the correct file, copy the file to the computer's hard drive.
4.	Next, the video from the camcorder needs to be imported. Connect the camcorder to the computer with a 4-pin to 6-pin firewire cable.
5.	Open the video editing software, such as iMovie, Pinnacle Studio, or in this case Final Cut Pro. The software should recognize the connection with the camcorder. Import the video from the camcorder.
6.	Now it is time to sync the two videos together on the movie timeline. Use the audio and video cues you had the subject perform to sync the two videos.
7.	Trim any excess (unwanted) video from the beginning and end of the two clips.
8.	Reduce the aspect size of the video shot with the camcorder, so it will fit in one of the corners of the nNovia video. Do not reduce the aspect size so much to not be able to discern reactions by the subject, however you also do not want it too large, covering up too much of the nNovia video.
9.	Once the two videos have been synced and the picture-in-picture has been done, the video needs to be exported. Export the video with settings specific to your intentions.

Finished Example

To see a finished example, click on a link below to download and view the field recording usability study video (you can right click & save target as... to download the file)

Field Recording Usability Study (Mpeg 4 -->.mp4 - small; 3.64mb)

Field Recording Usability Study (Quicktime Movie -->.mov - large; 77.9mb)